A resident of Canterbury's Pegasus Beach has described watching the massive ongoing fire in the area spread late last night.
The 200-hectare fire north of Christchurch is still burning despite the best efforts of Fire and Emergency New Zealand to put out the blaze overnight. Around 130 people were evacuated from the Woodend Beach Holiday Park.
Rachel Malloch, who lives near the beach, told 1News this morning: "We saw a fire coming up over the trees (last night) and it raced down the beach, within an hour and a half it had gone right down.
"So we were quite scared because the wind was taking the fire to 25 (or) 30 metres up in the air, we could see that over the trees and those trees are really, really big."
It’s been a long night for those in Pegasus and Woodend as a bush fire continues to burn. (Source: 1News)
Malloch said she was worried about her house and put her sprinklers on, "not that it's going to make any difference".
"And I was quite concerned for a lot of people who might be in that neighbourhood, even homeless people sleeping on the beach, because we do get that sometimes too," she added. "And I just wasn't sure if it was safe.
"Saw a few explosions...We saw like huge fireballs exploding in the trees and whole trees on fire.
"I was thinking 'oh God, no, this is not happening'".
Aimee Edmonds of Diamond Racing says they were flooded with offers of help from the racing community. (Source: 1News)
Police say they have "strong lines of inquiry" into the cause of the overnight blaze north of Christchurch and that several people are "assisting" with their investigations.
In a press conference this morning, FENZ assistant commander Colin Russell said around 70 firefighters had battled the blaze overnight.
"There was a lot of traffic on the street, fire engines, water tankers, I saw an ambulance...They were racing up and down," Malloch said.
"I've never seen that in the middle of the night really, but that was what was happening."
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